Next on the agenda after the Grand Canyon was Las Vegas. As most residents of the western U.S. know, Sin City is so over the top that you have to take your out-of-county guests there. I was the first one up the next morning and looked out the window to see the New York, New York roller coaster doing its morning test runs with no riders.

Since all my traveling companions tend to sleep in and since this was my first time staying at New York, New York, I decided it was a good time to grab my camera and explore a bit.

If you have not visited NY, NY, you may not know that the interior carries out the theme of NY city streets. This was, I guess, their version of Times Square.

Because it was early (about 9AM), there were only a few pedestrians strolling about so it was easy to get photos without too many people in the way. I do enjoy the imagination that went into designing these indoor buildings — they really look like something one might see in NY. I wonder if they imported folks from Disney to help in the design work.

Note on this corner is Gallagher's Steakhouse serving "the finest dry-aged beef and fresh seafood", "a New York original since 1927".
I thought that perhaps we might enjoy dining here until I saw the prices — $50 for a New York Strip Steak!!! With drinks and dessert, we could have easily spent $400-$500. Now where was that McDonalds again?

Back to the free part of the trip, I was amazed at the detail that went into the design of the buildings. Note the fire escapes with plants on the landings. Note the window air conditioners — with additional plants. The signage, the awnings, it's well-planned and I love it.

And you'll note on this building, it even has the building date (1896) just like real old buildings have. And being in NYC, there has to be a billboard advertising something!

The one thing I thought was missing was stars in the sky. Of course with NYC pollution, maybe New Yorkers would not know what those tiny lights were.

As I was walking along past one of the buildings that was designed to resemble apartments, I noticed that sleeping in one resident's window were a momma cat and a baby cat. Delightful.

A few of the early morning guests were enjoying coffee and a light breakfast. I did notice a restaurant that sounded interesting — a crêpe restaurant. I came back that evening with Johnny and he experienced his first crêpe ever, a pepperoni pizza crêpe — which seemed decidedly non-authentic but which he enjoyed immensely.